Part 2: The Truth About Cats and Dogs

This is crazy. There's got to be somebody here.






No one here either...
Wha- what is going on?


People! It's people! I've never been so happy to see-
Oh it's just that blue haired twerp.


Don't just run off like that! Huh?

Where is everybody?
...really?
Look I'm just reading the script. Leave me alone.
Dunno. I've looked all over. Seems deserted.
... First things first. We ought to get everyone together. Hey, what's your name?
I'll decide when people start giving names!


...
Lena. No.
The one in the yellow is Rick. And in blue, that's Kule.
_{C'mon it's not like anyone will miss him.
No murder!}
Do yourself a favor and remember that!
_{Can I just box his ears or something?
Do it later. Just play nice for now.
Fine.}
I'm Lena, and this here is Ellie! Come on, let's go find the others.
Aw, can it! I'll decide when to do that, baby!


...uh...

That's enough! Let's go, Ellie!
Wow. I'm really surprised you're letting that go.
Oh I'm not. I'm just... saving it.
And the villagers were afraid of me...





Oh, and Ant's Adams here do get face portraits, despite being boring as dirt.

In any case, we gotta go grab those kids we saw at the beginning of the chapter. One would think to go back to the clearing we started at.



Nope, they're at the harbor!

As far as I can tell, the game does not tell you they're here. You'd have no reason to guess it either. At least it's obvious when you walk by.

By the way, I've never played this game in Japanese, I only played it once the translation patch came out. And I still had to consult a walkthrough for the early part of the game. It's not the clearest game sometimes.




The island began to move as soon as everyone was across the bridge.
Wonder if I should have stayed behind.
Come on, everyone! Follow me!






Looks like we're the only ones on Iyen...


Wait, IS this Iyen?
Are we on the island I've been really unclear about this.
What is going on?
What is this circle doing in the middle of town are they going to sacrifice us to a dark god or something?!
And why did you move to the other side of the redhead girl?
SHUT UP.



_{Why do you keep doing that it's really distracting.}
Let's have a look around the town!




I hate you.


Yup.
Yeah.
You guys aren't very reassuring.


Well hey there was no mass panic, so I think that went pretty well.
You really have so little faith in me? I've always been pretty good at inspiring and motivating people, you know.


...
Well, it's a valid question.


Look, it's only natural that people are a-
You don't have to humor me Ellie.


-Your vitality.
Uh... thank you?
Oh, that's Exposition Bob. He's had this condition since birth. It's tragic really.


Got to find some clue what's going on.
Let's just keep looking around town. There's got to be something. We haven't been in here yet.




Why does the magic school have a dojo?
Oh no, they had P.E. here...
In any case, nothing here. Wasn't there something in the back of the building?




A... cave?




I can't put my finger on it, but there's something kind of... wrong about this.
There's got to be some reason why the gym has a series of caves behind it. Like...
No, I've got nothing.


Let's, uh... move on shall we?




Smells like... chemicals and cat pee. Urgh.
I'm kind of afraid to see what's in these jars.
Then... don't. 'Sides, it doesn't seem like there are any clues here either.
I, uh... I'm kind of afraid to mention this, but I saw a shack behind the building here too.
Erm. Well, at this point, I don't know if anything would surprise me.




Just had to run my mouth didn't I.


And they're everywhere...
Lena. I'm starting to regret everything I've ever done in my life.
Me too Ellie. Me too.


But seriously, what IS up with this door?!
_{What have we gotten ourselves into?}
Snap out of it! Look, let's just... leave, and forget we saw this.
...yeah...


I don't see any shacks or caves nearby, so I think we're safe.
Keep an eye out anyway.


So any ideas?
About what?
About what's going on. Do you have theories?
Uh... even though there's no one here, it still looks neat and tidy and there's lots of stuff around. So... everyone left really suddenly, then. Maybe everyone left 'cuz of something bad happening or about to happen?




Hm, there's clearly some funny business going on in this town. The masks, the weird cave, that circle in the middle of town...
What are you thinking then?
These people were clearly cultists or something. Maybe whatever they worshiped took them away or something.
That would explain so much... You know, I dunno if we should stay here.
I know, but... well where else are we gonna go?
Uh, home?
Yeah, but how are we going to get back?
The same way we came? ...How did we get to that forest anyway?
...
...
ANYway, I think we should gather everyone up and see if anyone else has found anything.


We can't be the only ones here!


This is weird! I wonder where everyone went?
It's like a ghost town.
Ugh, my stomach's starting to talk to me, too.
You have wonderful timing, you know?
Don't I though? Seriously if I don't get food in me I will starting eating people.
It's a good point, though! We need to gather food! I bet we can hunt up some meat in that forest east of here! C'mon, guys!






We can't let the men outdo us! To the forest!
Yeaaah!




what are we waiting for? Let's hop to it!

Hey kids, you know what it's time for?





Gameplay!



There's two herbs in the forest, a Calm Herb and a slightly stronger Cure Herb. And yes, you can get them before arriving in town and I actually did.



But more importantly: combat! Finally!



So Walking School's combat. How to describe it... Well, have you played a turn-based RPG before? There you go. That's the combat.



Okay, there's a little bit more to it than that. For one, while you do have the option to attack, both Ellie and Lena are terrible at it. Ellie is a slightly better fighter, but even with both of them attacking the same enemy it takes more than a round to bring one down. As a matter of fact, the cursor doesn't default to attack. It defaults to magic.



For good reason; Ellie's Flay will kill everything in a hit. She starts with 26 MP, so she's got more than enough to last the dungeon. And even if you don't, if you defend during battle, you get a small amount of MP back. Hooray, defend has a function! So while Lena is offensively useless (sorry Lena) at least she can always have enough MP to keep you tidy through the dungeon.

I say dungeon, but this forest is just one screen, with no maze to speak of, and nothing to do in it. There's one other monster in the forest, the Wazp, but it's not really any different.


We've got to go and gather food from the woods!

So what are we doing exactly? Well, we just fight until something drops meat. It's, say it with me children, forcing grinding for random drops!

...every Lunar game I've LPed aside from Eternal Blue has had this. What the hell Lunar series?!



A couple of other things to note. If you press cancel and then press right while you're entering commands to see the HP of enemies, or left for your party's stats. Very nice. Although whenever you cancel an ally's command, it has a tendency to move to the next person in line. They don't skip their turn, it just puts them last in line to input commands. (I think the order you input commands in does matter in terms of turn order, but I'm not sure.) You can just press up and go back to the previous character, but it's rather cumbersome.

But, yeah, you get it; the gameplay is quite unremarkable. The emphasis on magic is unique, but the encounter rate is so high that it loses its luster rather quickly. But if nothing else, at least you can choose which monster to attack, the healer has enough MP for her spells, and the battles are over in a matter of seconds even without fast forward.

...Lunar Dragon Song really helps you appreciate the basics.



Anyway, got the stupid meat. Also both of them gained a level.


Should we head back now?


Feh. I bet for all those boys' boasting they couldn't even scrounge up belly-lint-


Wow. That's a huge pile of food.
Where did they find all that food? Where did they find bananas?!


I'd hate to say it, but bravo.


Nevermind.


A... single bunny pig thing.
It does seem a little less impressive now, doesn't it?
Sorry, you two... We did our best, but...
It's okay. No worries!


Considering that's a still a really huge pile of food.
Seriously, where did these bananas come from?


You women are hopeless. Take a break, girls. Leave it to us! Come on, MEN... Let's go!
Yeaaah!!




They've got some gall!
Really?
What?
You let that go too? Are you feeling okay Lena?
Shut it. Unlike you, I'm a big-picture thinker.
Well, let's concern ourselves with our next move.
Um, I have an idea... Well, I saw plenty of rooms and buildings over there... We might as well start living there.
Hm... that just might work!
Wait, like... 'living here' living here? I thought maybe we might stay the night if we had to, but... living here like Lord of the Rings?
I think you mean Lord of the Flies... if they had actual buildings to live in and not the wilderness. As a matter of fact, that kind of defeats the whole point of the-
Whatever! Point is, all these empty building are here, we might as well take advantage of it.
But whatever ate the villagers here will probably come for us too.
...what?!
First off, there's no proof they were eaten. All we know is that they suddenly left, possibly carted off but maybe just fleeing in terror, who knows.
What are you guys-
But if they were indeed worshiping a dark god, if we don't then we're probably okay.
_{You know what, I just don't want to know.}
I think we can manage not to worship an evil god, but that doesn't mean the bad mojo isn't still here.
Maybe, but maybe not. We just got to take that chance! 'sides, weren't you the one going on about adventure?
This isn't what I had in-


I'm just gonna get overruled aren't I?
Yup.


We may be able to eat and sleep here... but still, it's creeping me out! All that talk about monsters and cults didn't help...



There's no real "roads" here, but all she means is the building just to the left and north of the town square.



This one.


All of the other girls wasted no time moving in, huh?
See, they're all comfortable here. This will work just fine.


We... just did. And so did you guys.


I know you guys didn't get as much food as the boys, but what you got should last us a good long while.
Heck, it's enough to feed Lena for a whole day!
Oh ha ha.


I'm telling you, I really don't think-
We need more meat!
Bu-
MEAT.
We don't-
MORE. MEAT.
...


MEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAT
Yes we know!

So yeah, guess what you gotta do next? More drop grinding! Yes. Seriously.

What the fuck Lunar Walking School? At least Dragon Song only made you do it once and look what you made me do!



Fortunately, meat dropped after only two battles, so that's quick at least. And the two gained another level.



Oh and you can use the meat as an item to restore HP. It'd be a bad idea, since you'd, ya know, lose it, unless you really need an excuse to grind some more.





By "rest up on the second floor" she just means to go there and come back. But if we're here, might as well look around.


Your powers will be restored!

AKA: Your MP regenerates over time. I believe it only regenerates in dungeons, but you can still be standing stock still and as long as you don't open the menu your MP will come back. It does however take a long time for even one point to regen... unless you're using an emulator then it just takes a few seconds on the fast-forward key.

The game is already easy. That just tops off the sundae.


Oh, you must be Bob's sister.
Ellie I'm huuuuungry. Can we check if they're done yet?
It's been five seconds.


See? Just calm down and wait.

Actually, all we have to do is exit the building and come back in.


What happened?
Seriously we were gone for five seconds what on earth could have happened?


The storage room was ransacked! It's a mess!
Could it have been monsters!?


Wait, what?
It was probably the BOYS who did this.
You've got to be kidding me! Can't they do anything on their own? I may have let it go earlier, but... they messed with my food.
It's personal now.





Oh but it gets better.




Wow. They are just doubling down on their giant jerk status aren't they?
Okay now it's extra personal! We've got to do something about this! We'll get 'em back somehow!
"Somehow."
Fine I won't murder any-
No I think you deserve this one.
I knew I liked you for a reason.